Genji Kuyō

源氏供養 A Memorial Service for Prince Genji

1 Source and/or Related Material

commentaries and digests of The Tale of Genji

2 Author

Unknown

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

The abbot of Agoi Temple in Kyoto (waki) visits Ishiyama Temple (modern Shiga) accompanied by some monks (wakitsure). There they encounter a woman (maeshite) who asks them for a memorial service for Prince Genji, the main character of the Tale of Genji. Giving hints that she is in fact Murasaki Shikibu, the author of the tale, the woman disappears. The priest offers prayers for Murasaki, and her ghost (nochishite) appears dressed in a lavender (J. murasaki) robe. The ghost tells how she wrote the Tale of Genji at Ishiyama Temple but, having failed to hold a memorial service to atone for Genji’s sins (i.e. for the sin of composing such a salacious tale), she has remained in a world of delusion after death. She asks the monk to write the Lotus Sutra on the back of a scroll of the Genji. When he does so, she thanks him with a song and dance (kuse), in which she refers to the chapters of her work, while explaining the Buddhist concept of impermanence and telling about the Pure Land. The play ends by revealing that Murasaki Shikibu is in fact an incarnation of Kannon at Ishiyama, and that she has composed the Genji to teach the doctrine of impermanence.